True Love
by jedimasterroyal
Summary: No amount of gold could ever compare, to the gift of love that a father and his children share.


_True Love_

_(Lie To Me)_

_Please leave a fave or review. I appreciate those who have. Excuse my mistakes. Do enjoy. Much love. -jedimasterroyal_

**_Love is patient and kind_**

**_Love bears all things,_**

******_believes all things, _**

**_hopes all things, _**

**_endures all things._**

He knew the minute that he learned of their existence, that he loved them.

It was perhaps a different type of love than what he held for Padme. Don't get him wrong, he loved her, but his children, was a whole different level of love. (One he had not known existed.) They were the flesh of his flesh, a part of him (he hoped it was the best part of him) and the best part of her.

He vowed to protect them, and to love them. Even if he never knew of a real father, a paternal instinct deep within him awoke. It was not a selfish love, or an overbearing love. This love held hope. Everything Anakin had ever done wrong in his life, he would put the effort so his son and daughter could do right. They were a new hope. The start of something beautiful.

So when Luke started crying that night, he got up.

His feet padded along the floor that led to the nursery next to his bedroom.

Anakin loved his cry. It wasn't persistent or annoying, piercing like the other children he had witnessed along the years. Luke whimpered and fussed quietly. Nonetheless, Anakin's ears were attuned so finely now that Luke and Leia had entered his life.

He picked him up and moved towards the rocking sofa stationed in the corner. Once he was comfortable, he positioned Luke in the way Padme had taught him. Alas, it seemed Luke had been fussing for attention. His eyes, a mirror image of his, wide open. They blinked in curiosity and suddenly he gurgled at him.

Anakin smiled and brought him to his lips. He loved kissing him. He loved feeling his tender baby flesh and his smell was marvelous. Luke's tiny fingers caressed him and it was almost electrifying.

"Hi there Luke," he whispered against his tuft of hair. "I love you."

Luke gurgled some more and smiled up to his Father. They stayed like that Father and Son. Anakin marveling at the innocence of the human being he held and Luke cherishing the protection and care he found in his Father's arms.

Anakin awoke to a murmur in the night. "Luke?"

"Don't worry," he replied as he put the baby back into his bassinet. "He's asleep."

**_Three years later_**

"Leia," he kneeled to confront her head-on, "Are you sure you don't want to talk a nap?"

"No!" and then she giggled.

He smiled because in all honesty he did not know why he bothered asking her. She never liked to take a nap. Leia was in all aspects different than Luke. While Luke was obedient, Leia was a rebel. Where Luke was quiet, she was loud. She had her eyes open when the twins were born and she had been the first to walk. Leia was always the trouble maker. Very much like him.

"Alright, silly. What do you want to do?" he chuckled.

Leia looked around, "Ummmm…Mama?!"

"That's a no, Princess. Your mother is with Luke right now. What about me and you play a game?" he suggested.

Now she smiled, "Okey Daddy. We play….Bantha!"

"Alright." He plopped down next to her, teasing her. "Well what are you waiting for silly, you're the bantha."

Her eyes widened and she quickly slapped his chest. "No! You squish me. You bantha."

"Oh my apologies princess," he replies whilst getting on his hands and knees.

Soon enough Leia is on top of him and it doesn't matter that she tugs forcefully on his air. She is his world. When he calls her Princess, it's because he means it. Anakin is at her beck and call. They gallop around the room, her laughter acting as soothing music to his ears.

When he's grown tired he bucks her off, careful not to hurt her and tickles her senseless until they are both lying next to each other. He never understands what he's done to deserve this, especially when she crawls into his chest and kisses him. Leia snuggles into him, her eyes growing weary.

"Love you Daddy," she murmurs. Her fingers curl next to his beating heart. He discovers there is nothing more blissful than this moment.

He awakens.

His respirator being the only signal of the bleak reality he lives in.

He rips of his mask and even if he struggles with breathing without it, he wants to feel human again. Angry tears streak across his face.

Vader hates this day with a passion because it is the only day Anakin Skywalker resurfaces. Each year on the anniversary of the day of his descent to Darkness he is reminded cruelly of everything he has lost. A dream purely pleasant plagues him. For the past 15 years, he sees his children grow up, only to awaken and realize they cease to exist.

When he learned from Palpatine that Padme had passed he had gone to inspect himself. He ordered the guards to open her tomb and when they did not acquiesce, he killed them. He opened her casket himself and wept over her body and more so when he saw her enlarged belly yet no life coming from it. He himself scoured and destroyed Polis Massa until he found her file.

_Padme Amidala: deceased_

_Twins: deceased_

Twins! Neither of them knew they were having twins. Oh, what a surprise that would have been.

He returned to Coruscant, hungry for revenge. That first year as Darth Vader he plunged and murdered. His kills were grotesque and cynical, but it did not matter to him. The Jedi, he had thought, took everything away from him. If only the Jedi had known the beauty that could come from love.

That is until the first dream. He dreamt of Luke, he dreamt of holding him. Only to awaken, his gloves still bloody from his last kill. Only then did Anakin Skywalker saw what he had become and he abhorred it. He hated Vader, because it was the only person he could not destroy. Vader was at fault. Vader murdered Padme. Vader murdered his children.

Because of Vader, Anakin never got to hold them, he never got to tell them he loved them. Padme had at least known of a time when she was loved but not Luke and Leia. Anakin hated Vader for taking their chance of innocence. If they were hope, well then he had truly lost it all.

So from that moment on, on the day of what would have been their birth he visits Naboo and places three Nubian tulips, Padme's favorites, on her tomb. It is the only day the darkness seems to quell. The only day Anakin Skywalker is allowed to weep. Each dream a taste of what could have been. Anakin believes he deserves it, Vader relishes in his pain and torture.

And right before Anakin Skywalker is consumed once again by the monster the he created of himself, he prays to the Force….no, begs to the Force that he could have another dream once again. For if at least within each dream he discovers and relives true love, if at least one more time he could hear one of his children whisper "I love you", he certainly did not mind being lied to.

_FIN_

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: Did I make you cry? Because I made myself cry guys. LOL jk jk. Anyways, I just wanted to say that it is totally up to you wether you believe what Vader/Anakin experienced where Force-enhanced taunts, or figments of reality (in none of the dreams are Luke and Leia together, nor is Padme involved in them) it could certainly be that Anakin is interacting with them in actual time through the Force, but no one can see him. BUT it's totally up to u. I meant to write it this way. KK latez. Leave a comment, review, fave, whatever below. Stay awesome._


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